Preparing students for late immersion in L2: An experience from a language enrichment programme in post-colonial Hong Kong

The mandatory implementation of mother tongue education in Hong Kong in 1998 which converted more than 70 per cent of its junior secondary classes from English medium to Chinese medium has met with strong opposition from parents fearing a possible decline in the learner’s level of English. To make up for the reduction in exposure to English and to prepare students for a possible switch back to English medium learning at senior secondary level, a 3-year contentbased English enrichment programme funded by the government was piloted in selected schools in 2001. An evaluation project assessing the effectiveness of the enrichment programme was also carried out in the same year. The findings of the 3-year evaluation study show that although such an English enrichment programme can possibly help students improve their English skills and subject knowledge, preconditions and support services in terms of cross-disciplinary collaboration are needed to attain effective content and language integrated learning. Copyright © 2008 De La Salle University, Philippines.